Creative Australia has announced the winners of the 2024 Prime Minister's Literary Awards at a special event at the National Library of Australia in Canberra.
Offering the most substantial literary prize in the nation, with a tax-free prize pool of $600,000, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards recognise the outstanding literary talents of established and emerging Australian writers, illustrators, poets, and historians.
This year's winning titles span genre and form, illuminating the complexities of our nation's past, present and paving the way for future Australian stories.
Across six categories, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards celebrate debut authors and seasoned professionals. From cultural journeys through Gurindji Country, to post-World War II history, and from a reappraisal of the goddess of love, to discussions with some of Australia's most accomplished media personalities – themes of culture, country, belonging and resilience cut through. The Awards are a testament to the strength and breadth of our nation's rich literary life.
In congratulating the winners, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said:
"Congratulations to this year's winners for showcasing the diversity of Australian voices and sharing our unique stories with the world.
"My Government is proud to support our arts and culture sector that does incredible work all around the nation."
Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, said:
"The authors who have been shortlisted for and awarded the Prime Minister's Literary Awards show there is a place for every story, and a story for every place. Through every form of the written word, they bring the Australian experience and the Australian imagination to life."
Creative Australia CEO Adrian Collette AM said:
"These awards recognise the outstanding talent and profound impact of our nation's best writers and storytellers. They celebrate the power of stories to connect us, across time, cultures and experiences, inviting us to imagine the world through a multitude of diverse perspectives, and deepening our understanding of who we are as a nation."
The winners were chosen by an expert independent panel of judges. This year, Creative Australia received 533 entries across six literary categories: fiction, non-fiction, young adult literature, children's literature, poetry, and Australian history.
The winners are:
FICTION
Anam by André Dao (Penguin Random House)
André Dao's Anam is an original and compelling exploration of histories full of trauma and exile. The author's own family, including a version of himself, populate a poignant narrative spanning generations and continents that questions the consequences of political chaos, war, displacement and refuge. Lovingly domestic in parts, boldly theoretical in others, for a country full of migrants, living amid unresolved questions of place and belonging, Anam is a profoundly relevant novel.
André Dao is a Melbourne-based writer, editor and artist. His debut novel, Anam, won the 2021 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. His writing has appeared in Meanjin, Sydney Review of Books, Griffith Review, The Monthly, The Lifted Brow, Cordite, The Saturday Paper, New Philosopher, Arena Magazine, Asia Literary Review and elsewhere
NON-FICTION
Close to the Subject: Selected Works by Daniel Browning (Magabala Books)
With thoughtfully chosen essays and interviews braided together with poetry and memoir, Browning demonstrates clear talent as an observer of cultural and political life, as well as within the hybrid literary form. The effect of the book is cumulative, threading the personal with the political through the lens of art.
Daniel Browning is a Bundjalung and Kullilli journalist, radio broadcaster, documentary maker, sound artist and writer. Currently, he is Editor: Indigenous Radio with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and produces and presents The Art Show for ABC RN, the ABC's specialist arts and journalism network.
YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis (Allen & Unwin)
Harvey's dads are splitting up. Now he's restarting his life in a new city, living above a cafe with the extended Greek family he barely knows. Sotiris is a rising star. At seventeen, he's already achieved his dream of publishing a novel. When his career falters, a cute, wise-cracking bookseller named Jem upends his world.
Harvey and Sotiris's stories converge on the same street in Darlinghurst, in this beautifully heartfelt novel about how our dreams shape us, and what they cost us.
Will Kostakis is an award-winning author for young adults. His first novel, Loathing Lola, was published when he was just nineteen. His second novel The First Third won the 2014 Gold Inky Award and was shortlisted for the CBCA and the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, among others. The Sidekicks was his third novel for young adults, and his US debut. It won the IBBY Australia Ena Noel Award.
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Tamarra: A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country byViolet Wadrill; Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal; Leah Leaman; Cecelia Edwards; Cassandra Algy; Felicity Meakins; Briony Barr; Gregory Crocetti (Hardie Grant Explore)
Tamarra: A Story of Termites on Gurindji Country is a fascinating, illustrated science book that takes kids inside the life of termites through storytelling from the Gurindji People. Written in traditional Gurindji, Gurindji Kriol and English (with a QR code to an audio version spoken in language), Tamarra is a truly original story with beautiful artwork that takes readers on an educational and cultural journey through Gurindji Country.
Violet Wadrill was born in 1942 and is a traditional owner of Jutamaliny. Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal; a senior ceremony woman was born in 1934 and paints her Dreaming. Both Violet and Topsy worked extensively with linguists on the documentation of Gurindji language and culture, including a dictionary, ethnobiology, song books and volumes of collected texts.
Leah Leaman is a Gurindji/Malngin woman and artist. Cecelia Edwards was born in Katherine to Warlpiri and Gurindji parents and has been painting since she was a child. Cassandra Algy is a Gurindji/Mudburra woman from Daguragu currently employed as a Karungkarni artworker. Briony Barr is a non-Indigenous visual-conceptual artist. Felicity Meakins (FASSA, FAHA) is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Queensland. Gregory Crocetti is a non-Indigenous microbial ecologist, science educator, writer and advocate.
POETRY
The Cyprian byAmy Crutchfield (Giramondo Press)
Amy Crutchfield's The Cyprian reappraises the figure of Aphrodite—Greek goddess of beauty, lust, love, procreation and passion—from a contemporary vantage point, finding in Aphrodite a capacious and complex avatar for love and its violent destruction across time. Crutchfield's lines are almost aphoristic in their concision yet see through to worlds magnitudes larger, and her voice arrives fully-fledged, and entirely in command.
Amy Crutchfield studied Classics and Law at the University of Melbourne. Her poetry has been published in Australia, the UK and Ireland. She has worked as a teacher and a lawyer. The Cyprian is her first book.
AUSTRALIAN HISTORY
Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country by Ryan Cropp (La Trobe University Press)
In Ryan Cropp's hands, Donald Horne's life speaks to the complexities at play in Australia's post-World War II history. Both a social history and an intellectual journey, this book delivers a sense of possibility in the idea that 'Australia' could develop as a concept, a community and a culture.
Ryan Cropp is a writer and historian based in Sydney. His writing has appeared in Australian Book Review, Overland and Inside Story. He has studied and taught in the Department of History at the University of Sydney.
The winner of each category receives $80,000.
The Prime Minister's Literary Awards acknowledge the importance of Australian literature and history. As set out in the National Cultural Policy — Revive a place for every story, a story for every place, this is the second year that the Awards have been managed by Creative Australia, in keeping with the core principle of arm's length funding for artists and arts organisations and reflecting the Australian Government's commitment to supporting Australian literature and the role it plays in connecting Australians to our culture, history, and values.
The Prime Minister's Literary Awards were established in 2008 to recognise individual excellence, and the contribution Australian authors make to the nation's cultural and intellectual life. Initially with two categories of non-fiction and fiction, in 2010 the young adult and children's literature categories were introduced, with the addition of the Poetry category in 2012 and the incorporation of the pre-existing Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History.
The award short listees, previously announced, will each receive a prize of $5,000.
